You are NOT my nemesis!

° Private Practice's (Tuesdays, Living) long-awaited debut was disappointing to say the least. Like I'm going to assume most people were, I was excited about the show because I loved Addison on Grey's and I liked the idea of seeing her in her own show. Sadly, on the evidence of the first episode alone, that's not the case at all. It doesn't feel like her show at all. Instead we saw Addison crowbarred into a an already-formed band of misfits who seem altogether less funny, less sexy and less loveable than Addison's prior running mates, so it all ends up feeling kind of pointless. I mean, if we're just going to be watching her fight for screen-time with a whole bunch of new people, why did she get a spin-off in the first place? That the phrase "cash cow" is flashing in my head already makes me sad. I only hope it starts to justify its existence as something more before its shortened first season finishes in nine weeks time. I'm sad enough that Marti Noxon won't be working there next year. The last thing the massive Buffy nerd inside me wants to face is the fact that it might be a justifiable decision.


Even more adorable than Jonathan Lipnicki's turn on Dawson's Creek
° My love of One Tree Hill (Mondays, E4) is probably somewhat irrational, I admit, but I must say that I'm enjoying its fifth season very much so far. How the seemingly ambitious four year time-jump would effect the show was a subject of much debate and, so far at least, I think the answer is that it hasn't done too much. Aside from giving the writers the opportunity for new stories, it seems very clear now that the move was not so much a way to fix a problem, but a way to avoid one. The show has successfully managed to bypass the need to awkwardly reconfigure its cast, characters and location, but it's still facing the same challenge to keep things fresh that any drama in its fifth season will face. For now it's all good, still riding the wave of fresh material garnered from the time-jump and leaning on a ridiculously cute little kid (above), but it'll be interesting to what happens in about ten episodes time when things have settled down somewhat. Good start though, and certainly one that vindicates the risk.

° Make Me a Supermodel US (Mondays, Living) is enjoyable enough so far, but unfortunately seems to lack the edge of its British predecessor. The thing that made the British version so enjoyable was that it offered a more realistic, adult twist on the America's Next Top Model formula; taking the kid gloves off and constantly smacking its contestants in the face with the unbearable truths of an industry based around a distorted perception. The US version feels a little meek in comparison.

Still...at least it's a step up from Britain's Next Top Model, right?